明日之光Open Arms 團隊一年回顧

2020年11月，美中下一代基金會明日之光公益獎平台正式成立並得到華人社區的積極響應。平台的職責之一是傳播各個團隊的事迹和經驗，共大家學習，交流和參考。今天我們收到Open Arms 團隊對他們一年以來服務社區的總結。和我們刊登的絕大多數明日之光團隊的文章一樣，這篇文章是孩子們自己寫的，再用翻譯軟體翻譯成中文。這個過程本身對孩子們就是一個鍛煉。希望這支優秀團隊再接再厲，更好的幫助特需孩子，在做公益的同時，鍛煉自己的各項能力。與此同時，我們也希望廣大家長和孩子們積极參与他們的活動，支持他們，幫助他們，和他們一起成長！

Open Arms One Year Review（團隊一年回顧）

Written By: Isabella Cui

Revised By: Alexis Liu

On May 29th, 2021, Open Arms officially opened with the 8 founders, 7 other volunteers, and 14 participants. Now, we just celebrated our first anniversary, and we』re proud to say that we have more  than doubled in size. This past year has been an amazing experience for all of us, and we have been expanding and improving our organization to make this year even better.

2021年5月29日，Open Arms的八位創始人、7位志願者和14位特需孩子正式開始第一次聚會。現在，我們剛剛慶祝了一周年，我們很自豪地說我們的規模擴大了一倍多。過去的一年對我們所有人來說都是一次了不起的經歷，我們一直在擴大和改進我們的組織，以使新的一年能發展得更好。

Last year, we held our special events once a month. Each time the venue was overflowing with people, and we gained multiple regular volunteers. As a result, we decided to host weekly events this year to accommodate more people. Knowing how many people we could already impact, we wanted to expand our reach to more people m ore often. When we first started weekly events, we worried we may not have enough participants or volunteers，but instead we had positive responses with many participants and volunteers coming each week. As of this month, we already have over 30 participants and 40 volunteers in our organization, double what we had last year. Because so many people registered, often we had to reject some registrants.

去年，我們每月舉辦一次特別活動。來的人數一次比一次多，多名固定的志願者加入我們。因此，我們今年開始舉辦每周一次的活動，可以接納更多的志願者。 也可以更好地服務特需孩子。 看到我們可以影響到很多人，我們希望能更經常地去幫助更多人成長。當我們開始每周活動時，我們擔心沒有足夠的參與者或志願者，但每周都有許多參與者和志願者前來，我們得到了非常積極的回應。截至本月，先後參加過我們活動的志願者有四十多人，而我們先後服務的特需孩子也有近三十人，達到了剛開始時的兩倍。因為報名人數太多， 我們常常不得不拒絕一些義工或參與的孩子。

Following these weekly events, this year we also implemented a report system – where volunteers write a summary of what they did each week in exchange for volunteer hours. These reports help us track each participant』s progress, as well as informs us of their behavioral quirks and personal needs. Through reports, we, as an organization, can also learn of places we should improve, and ones that are satisfactory.

在這些每周活動之後，今年我們還實施了一個報告系統——志願者在其中寫下他們每周所陪伴的孩子的總結。這些報告幫助我們跟蹤每個參與者的進度，並告知我們他們的行為特點和個人需求。通過這些報告，我們作為一個組織也可以了解到我們應該改進的地方，以及那些令人滿意的地方。

Besides this, we』ve also been improving many other facets of Open Arms. We recently designed our very own volunteer t-shirts, which makes it much easier to recognize volunteers at our events. We have done some work on our social media, and are in the process of designing a new website with our own domain. With that, we』ll have a lot more new features, such as individual log-ins and profiles, a donation page, and a spotlight page. On our social media, we』ll be promoting our organization, posting announcements and events, and posting about our progress!

除此之外，我們還一直在改進Open Arms的許多其他方面。我們最近設計了自己的志願者T恤，這使得在我們的活動中識別志願者變得更加容易。我們在社交媒體上做了一些工作，並且正在設計一個擁有我們自己域名的新網站。有了這個，我們將擁有更多新功能，例如個人登錄和個人資料、捐贈頁面和活動亮點頁面。在我們的社交媒體上，我們將宣傳我們的組織，發布公告和活動，並發布我們的進展！

In the coming year, we plan to extend our reach to different groups of people and communities，and raise awareness of the special needs community to the locals. The programs will include creating high school branches to reach out feeding elementary and middle school special needs kids. Another program is peer education. We will use resources from Organization For Autism Research to reach out to local communities to raise awareness of autism. We also registered for an Autism Speaks Walk event. Please join us or support us for the walk. Here is our team link： http://act.autismspeaks.org/goto/OpenArmsWalk

來年，我們計劃將服務範圍擴大到不同的人群和社區。並提高人們對特殊需要人群的了解和接納。這些計劃將包括在高中創建分支俱樂部，以服務學區內中小學生特殊需要的孩子。另一個項目是關於自閉症方面的知識普及。我們將利用自閉症研究組織的資源在社區做一些講座，以提高對自閉症的認識。我們還註冊了自閉症演講步行活動。請加入我們或支持我們的步行。這是我們的團隊鏈接：http://act.autismspeaks.org/goto/OpenArmsWalk

We hope in the coming year, we can accomplish most of these goals/ideas. But to accomplish these, we do need your support. If you want to be a regular sponsor for Open Arms, please email us at openarms2021.org@gmail.com. We will display your business logo or business card on our website. If you just want to give one time donation, please Zelle to openarms2021.org@gmail.com. If any middle/high schooler is interested in volunteering or participating at Open Arms, we would be delighted to have you join us! Please fill out this form to be a volunteer with us. ( Join Open Arms as Volunteer ). If you want to know more information about Open Arms, please email us at openarms2021.org@gmail.com. We welcome you with open arms!

我們希望在接下來的一年裡，我們可以實現這些目標/想法中的大部分。但要完成這些，我們需要您的支持。如果您想成為 Open Arms 的常規贊助商，請使用電子郵件聯繫我們（openarms2021.org@gmail.com）我們將在我們的網站上展示您的企業標誌或名片。如果您只想一次性捐贈，請 Zelle 發送至openarms2021.org@gmail.com 。如果任何初中/高中生希望加入我們志願者隊伍， 請填寫此表格成為我們的志願者。( Join Open Arms as Volunteer )。如果您想了解有關 Open Arms 的更多信息，請發送電子郵件至openarms2021.org@gmail.com。我們張開雙臂歡迎您！